‘Penny-Stock Pataki’ Will Not Be a Senator

George Pataki, who has recently gone from the board of one very odd-looking penny stock to another, is not going to be a senator anytime soon. He has decided to skip the Senate race, the Wall Street Journalwrote today, which is a lucky thing for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, whose poll numbers are not all that swell. “Were he to enter the race,” the Journal says, “Mr. Pataki would be leading Ms. Gillibrand by 45% to 40%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

Does his decision have anything to do with the news of his connection to a recently-failed penny stock called Perf Go Green, or to Mesa Energy Holdings? Mesa has been the subject of hilariously intense recent stock promotions, like one from Jarret B. Wollstein that says it’s on track to be his “next 809% stock winner.” That comes with a small disclaimer that says Mr. Wollstein got thousands of dollars from Mesa shareholders “who may or will sell shares of the feature Company at or about the time of this report,” which looks and smells an awful lot like a pump-and-dump scheme. Mr. Wollstein, incidentally, was caught up in strange penny stock dealings with Shaquille O’Neal, too.

But never mind all that.

The Journal article does not mention his board positions at those companies.

Mr. Pataki said that he wants to focus on forming an organization that will work on repealing health care reform. His group is called Revere America.